


B 



Author 



Title 



iMfiprint. 



16—47372-2 GPO 






Count Albert Apponyi 

The so-called Angel of Peace, and 
what he stands for in Hungary. 



A few pen pictures by 

Bjornstjerne Bjornson 

and others. 

aJHGAK^^^ Property of 




* 'Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so to them." 



6 

Copy- 



39 6 M 

7 AUG 1953 






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111 



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PREFACE 

"Whatsoever ye would that men should 
do unto you, do ye even so to them." 

To our American Fellow-Citizens: 

This booklet is issued for the purpose of presenting to you a few facts 
abovtt the record of Count Apponyi Avith a view to showing you how little 
his conduct at home in his own country, entitles him to pose before the 
world as an "angel of peace." "By their fruits ye shall know them." The 
outrages against civilization, such as the Csernova massacre, which is re- 
printed in this booklet, are a part of a governmental system in Hungary of 
which the Count is one of the leading exponents. At the time of this mas- 
sacre, Count Apponyi was minister of education in the so-called Coalition 
Cabinet. In this booklet we have cited from the works of non-Slavs their 
condemnation of Apponyi and all that he stands for. As our witnesses to 
the truth about the persecutions and outrages to which the non-Magyar 
people of Hungary (and in many instances the Magyars themselves) are 
subjected, we refer you to the statements of the late Bjornstjerne Bjornson, 
the grand old man of Norway; to those of R. H. Seton-Watson, a Scot; to 
those of Geoffrey Drage, an Englishman, and Louis Leger, a Frenchman. 

"Nothing that is human, is foreign to me," said the Roman of old. The 
cause of liberty, of justice and humanity is woven into the warp and woof 
of our American li^e and being. As exiles whom oppression and suffer- 
ing, and the consequent economic and political conditions in Hungary 
have caused to flee to this land of traditional liberty and justice, we ask our 
American fellow-citizens to peruse the following pages. And if perchance, 
the story of our wrongs has gained your interest, we ask you to read "Ra- 
cial Problems in Hungary/' by Seton-Watson (Scotus Viator). Then you, 
too, like Bjornson and Seton-W^atson, will revise your opinion of a people 
who. like the Pharisees of old, hypocritically parade virtues which they 
possess not, and the mask of Magyar "chivalry" will fall to disclose the 
hideous face of cruelty and barbarism, and perhaps another idol of for- 
mer days will fall shattered into merited oblivion. We appeal to the en- 
lightened public sentiment of America. 

This booklet is issued in the interest of justice and peace on behalf of 
the non-Magyar immigrants from Hungary by 

The Slovak National Committee. 
// 
Cleveland, Ohio, February 15, 1911. 



PEACE AND THE FRIENDS OF PEACE. 

,By Bjomstjerne Bjornson. 

(This article appeared in the periodical "Marz," published in 
Munich, Germany, September 17, 1907, and also in "Le Courier 
Europeen.) 

Professor Sergi of Rome, has sent a sharp criticism about the 
Hague Peace Conference to the "Courier Europeen." In it he 
writes, that it is a sheer humbug. 

There are millions of people who surely agree with that cen- 
sure, for it did not come unexpectedly. To fix absolutely the rules 
by which, hereafter, nations shall murder each other, will not im- 
prove the prospects for a universal peace. And the instructions 
which they furnish to poor, unfortunate provinces that may be at- 
tacked, as to the manner in which they are permitted to defend 
themselves, remind us of the rage of wild beasts when their prey 
is about to escape. Small nations which participate in these confer- 
ences, do so from fear, for, of course, they will be the first ones to 
receive consideration. 

And the current of thought runs thus in every country. Yet 
these official conferences will be beneficial to the various states. Not 
so much through the mechanism which is to. regulate war, and to 
create the possibility of peace, but rather the fact, that they are as- 
sembling. For when you are playing with love, it may stick to you. 

We all feel, that the gentlemen of The Hague will not bring us 
peace, just as laws will not quench the thirst for crime, so even the 
rules of war will not quench combativeness. 

That can only be done by the growth of the ethics of peace ; it 
must bit by bit displace the ethics of war until it shall have entirely 
overshadowed it. Toward this end the friends of peace have brought 
a great contribution. When diplomats sit at The Hague, that is 
their work. And when finally a public opinion shall have been cre- 
ated throughout the world which shall be opposed to war, that too 
will be due to the friends of peace. 

Everything that is spiritual must change its nature in the course 
of time. It may be, that the spirit of the friends of peace needs reno- 
vation. The period of awakening has certainly passed ; the very 
many celebrations by the friends of peace have tired us out. We 
should take a deeper view into the philosophy of the ethics of peace 



(German, Friedensmoral.) A person is constrained to ask, what 
can the prospect be, if the same states which are sending representa- 
tives to The Hague, that they may help to give impetus to the ethics 
of peace, at home among their own, are conducting themselves in 
accordance with the ethics of war? Or do these friends of peace 
really believe that their many written articles, speeches and cele- 
brations are truly useful, though they therhselves are citizens of 
states vvrhich strike in the face every principle of peace? In this con- 
nection, this is what counts: Do not do unto others what you do 
not want them to do unto you. 

There is nothing that so enhances confidence toward an apostle 
of cleanliness, as the fact that he maintains his own house in clean- 
liness. There is nothing that will so impel the people to enlist un- 
der the banner of an apostle of peace, as the fact that he has fought 
in his own country against injustice and pharisaism ; and who per- 
haps has even suffered on that account. 

At the present time, instead of this, the following is the man- 
ner of their conduct: 

(Bjornson here reviews various instances of oppression and in- 
justice toward nations, coming in turn to the conduct of the Mag- 
yars in this respect.) 

The Magyars are most zealous, when it pertains to the work 
of peace. Generally, they are most zealous, when it concerns hu- 
manity and legal consciousness. But at home among themselves 
they are oppressing three millions of Slovaks. They are prohibiting 
them from speaking in the language of their soul ; they are vilifying 
their love for their historic traditions. They are closing their mu- 
seums, they are confiscating their instrumentalities whereby they 
can remain in communion with the life of their forefathers. At the 
parliament they insult them by calling them "swine," they throw 
them down the stairways, they spit at them in the newspapers. The 
man who in his office of minister (of education) is directing this 
vilification, is simultaneously a champion of Christianity. His name 
is COUNT APPONYI and at all peace conferences, of all those 
present, he does the most talking. 

The entire work of peace must 'be so begun, not that we shall 
fight against war, but against the ethics of war. 

And the friend of peace must begin the work at home in his 
own country. Let him win his spurs there at home, and at home let 
his conduct be such as to make him worthy of the honor of attend- 
ing an international peace congress and of addressing it. 



But now we must in truth press forward. If a friend of peace 
is the son of a nation which is oppressing other nations, he must 
prove that he has fought at home against such oppression. If he is 

a son of a nation which is not oppressing others, he must labor 
against the ethics of war in other fields. The brotherhood of peace, 
spread throughout the world, will be successful. Through such 
deeds, the friends of peace will again regain that respect which they 
have partially lost. 

Meanwhile, the friends of peace must glean their lessons from 
this. Arousing public sentiment is no longer sufficient; deeds are 
demanded. I have already stated where the beginning should be 
made. The oppression of a weaker nation by a stronger one is the 
most repulsive barbarism that has come down from former ages. 
Against this policy of "consolidating the state" we should arouse 
the entire public opinion. Great Britain in the Transvaal has al- 
ready submitted to it. 

If the friends of peace proceed along this road, they will soon 

discern that it will lead into a veritable paradise, in which universal 

peace reigns. 

* * >|j 

In my youth it was a ridiculous matter — outside of Italy — to 
talk about a united Italy. And just so — outside of Germany — to talk 
about a united Germany. But both countries are today united. This 
should teach us a lesson, and we would realize, that the union of the 
Slavs will come also. Mighty, young Russia in ten to twenty years 
will be through with her revolution and then we shall have united 
Slavs as far as western Bohemia. And this Slavic Union will be 
able to deluge everything that comes in her way. 

"Will be able." That will depend upon the policy of the Ger- 
mans, Austrians, and Magyars. If this policy is wise and liberal- 
minded, it can make brothers of the Slavs who live among the Ger- 
mans, Austrians and Magyars. They will feel safe and contented. 
They will then gladly join the Teutonic Peace Union. On the other 
hand these states can produce out of these nations a terrible menace 
for Europe. 

Especially the present Magyar policy toward the Slovaks is the 
most brutal of which I know. The Magyars form a small island of 
seven million people in the midst of a sea of foreign races. They are 
beginning to oppress the parts of the races with whom they occupy 
a common state. In this absurd manner they hope to strengthen 
themselves. And simultaneously they have begun hostilities toward 



their allies ; in this absurd manner they hope to make their future 
secure. The danger to Europe which lies in this policy, is self-ap- 
parent. It is certainly greater than the danger from the labor prob- 
lem and greater than the danger from the agrarian problem. By the 
last I mean the unjust division of the land and this problem must 
soon come under consideration. ^ 

I again ask the friends of universal peace, do^you understand 
what you must work for? That is, if you truly long for universal 

peace. 

Even if the organization is rent asunder, there is where we must 

begin. 

We must create a brotherhood so that nations will live in peace. 
The knighthood of the morality of peace upon a legal foundation. 
In a practical way we must defend the principle, "Do not do unto 
others what you do not want them to do unto you." 

THE REVISING OF OPINIONS CONCERNING THE MAG- 
YARS AND THE SHATTERING OF IDOLS. 

The editor of the Magyar newspaper, "A Hir," seemed inquisi- 
tive to know what had caused the great Norwegian author to pass 
such a severe judgment upon the Magyars and the Magyar treat- 
ment of the non-Magyar nations. _^ 

Bjornson replied thus: 

"From childhood I loved the Magyar people and admired them ; 
when later I began to investigate more closely and saw all that in- 
justice which the Magyars perpetrate upon the nations with whom 
they dwell in a common state, I began to abhor Magyar chauvinism. 
I firmly believe, that outside of the boundaries of Hungary there 
is not a single person whose soul is not aflame against Magyar 
chauvinism. A grave menace, aye, even extinction, threatens Hun- 
gary if she continues in perpetrating these wrongs. If you desire 
to better learn what my opinions are in regard to this question, 
read my article in the periodical, "Marz," of September, 17, (1907) 
or in "Le Courier Europeen," entitled "Peace and the Friends of 
Peace." I shall continue in an early number ; no insults, no threats, 
such as I have received, will deter me in my further investigations 
into this unpleasant affair." _ 

R. D. Seton-Watson, the author of "Racial Prdblenis in Hun- 
gary." was also originally a friend and admirer of the Magyars, 
until" an intimate study and knowledge of them and their institu- 



tions caused him to revise his opinion, and to pubhsh to the world 
the truth about them in his "Racial Problems in Hungary." We 
commend this book to our American fellow citizens who love the 
truth, and faithful to the traditions of the founders of this Republic, 
believe in true justice, liberty and humanity. 

Seton- Watson says : 

I approached the subject with the conventional views of a 
British admirer of Louis Kossuth, and have gradually and reluc- 
tantly revised my opinion on almost every problem of Austrian 
or Hungarian politics. A writer who challenges the long-estab- 
lished belief in Hungarian liberty and tolerance, must- be prepared 
to meet a charge of prejudice and bias. To my mind true im- 
partiality does not consist in a bare catalogue of facts and a resolve 
to avoid all expression of opinion ; it lies rather in approaching the 
subject with an open mind or with a readiness to correct existing 
bias, in resolving never to suppress essential facts which conflict 
with the writer's own views and sympathies, and in humbly acknow- 
ledging the fact that historic truth is relative, not absolute. On 
these lines I have honestly tried to act, and I must leave the reader 
to judge as to the success of my experiment. In its course many 
an idol has been broken, many a cherished belief discarded. 

The present volume does not pretend to treat all of the races 
of Hungary in detail. To give a really adequate account of the 
Roumanians, Croats and Serbs of Hungary and Croatia, would have 
involved a further delay of eighteen months ; and the present time 
seems to me already more than ripe for drawing the attention of 
our public to the wrongs of the non-Magyar races in Hungary and 
to the sad plight to which Magyar Chauvinism has reduced the 
Hungarian state. I have therefore concentrated my attention upon 
the Slovaks, whose situation may be regarded as typifying that of 
all the non-Magyar races in Hungary, and who stand most in need 
of help and sympathy. 

Of course no Magyar Chauvinist will believe so "calumnious 
and fanatical" a writer as myself, when I say that this book has 
been written entirely without any feeling of hatred towards Hun- 
gary. Perhaps in ten years' time, when universal suffrage has 
let in a healthy stream of democracy and the present orgy of 
racial intolerance and class legislation has spent itself, it will be 
possible for a Magyar to make such an admission. That is, however, 
a matter of comparative indifference to me, since I write for the 



British, not for the Hungarian pubHc, whose tendency to ascribe 
all unfavorable comments on Hungary by foreign writers either 
to bribery or to "Viennese spectacles," tempts me to ignore their 
criticism altogether. 

My object has been, not so much to expose the present regime 
in Hungary (whose reactionary and oligarchic nature is now well 
known abroad) as to convince those of my countrymen who seem 
disposed to commit Britain to sympathy with the Magyar clique 
and thereby to promote the ruin of the Habsburg Monarchy and 
an European conflagration — to prove to them that Hungarian free- 
dom is a myth for all save the Magyars, and even for the Magyars 
if they espouse the cause of Socialism or Labor, and that her rul- 
ing classes stand for everything that is anathema to all enlight- 
ened politicians in this country, whether they call themselves Con- 
servatives, Liberal, Labor or Nationalist. The Magyars may deny 
all attempt at Magyarization : that is only an argument (if argu- 
ment it can be called) with which to fool ignorant foreigners. 
For a year it took me in completely ; now it has lost its effect, and I 
wish to make it impossible to repeat the process with any of my 
countrymen who do me the honor of reading this book. 
"Racial Problems in Hungary." — Preface, etc., pages VH-VHI ; 

XIX-XX. 

Judicial Injustice 

[Reprinted from "Racial Problems in Hungary."] 

"It became a second nature of the Hungarian national charac- 
ter not to take the law seriously, not to comply with, but to evade 
it. Even today we are still suffering from this fact." 

Count Julius Andrassy (now Minister of the Interior) in 1897. 

In Hungary justice moves at an Asiatic pace. An interval of 
many months separates the offence from its trial, and meanwhile 
the accused person only too often languishes untried in prison. The 
abuses of this system, which are mainly due to those dilatory and 
easy-going habits which are innate in every Magyar, are specially 
flagrant in the case of political offences. Persons charged with in- 
stigation "against the Magyar nationality" (instigation against 
other nationalities goes unpunished) or with "class hatred" (which 
of course means hatred of the upper classes) are kept in suspense 
for months and occasionally even imprisoned pending trial, until 
the Public Prosecutor has taken a leisurely survey of the facts. Those 



who take the trouble to study the law-court reports in any Hungar- 
ian newspaper will find that even most of the Press offences for 
which legal proceedings were taken, are eight, ten, fifteen, even 
eighteen months' old before they come into court. 

These judicial delays are sufficiently reprehensible; but if they 
formed the only complaint against Hungarian justice it would have 
been obviously unfair to mention them. A far more serious charge 
consists in the disagreeable fact that two kinds of justice exist in 
Hungary today — one for "patriots," that is for Magyars, but of 
course only such Magyars as refrain from active resistance to the 
ruling clique and from open sympathy with the oppressed prole- 
tariat — and another for the non-Magyar races and the working 
classes, the helots of the Magyar oligarchy. That this is no mere 
sweeping assertion will become abundantly clear from the details 
contained in this chapter. — "Racial Problems in Hungary," p. 314. 

WHAT IS "LAUDATIO CRIMINIS?" 

The offence of laudatio criminis is a special feature of the Hun- 
garian criminal code, and the manner in which it is interpreted is 
without parallel in other civilized countries. Needless to say, even 
in Hungary it has not yet been found necessary to prosecute any 
one for the glorification of murder or other bestial actions; the par- 
agraph exists, and is applied merely for political purposes. A few 
startling instances will suffice to enlighten the reader. — "Racial 
Problems in Hungary," p. 328. 

THE MASSACRE OF CSERNOVA 

[Reprinted from "Racial Problems in Hungary."] 

Previous to his suspension. Father Hlinka had, partly out of 
his own means but chiefly by public subscription, arranged for the 
erection of a church in his birthplace, Csernova, a Slovak village of 
1,300 inhabitants, situated within the parish of Rozsahegy. To the 
cost of erection, which reached the figure of 80,000 crowns ( £3,300) 
no one belonging to the official world contributed a single farthing; 
everything was done by the unaided efforts of the parishioners, and 
their friends. Under these circumstances they naturally regarded 
themselves as entitled to some say in the matter of the consecration. 
In September, 1907, as the church was approaching completion, a 
petition in favor of its consecration was handed in to the bishop ; 
this document, which was only signed by four of the villagers, was 

8 



drafted by Father Hlinka himself. The great majority of the peo- 
ple of Csernova, however, were indignant at this petition, and only 
willing to consent to the ceremony on condition that Hlinka was al- 
lowed to be present. This was the general sentiment expressed at 
a meeting which was held in the village on October 6, and which 
was attended by Dean Pazurik and Father Fischer, the unpopular 
substitute of Hlinka since his suspension. Father Pazurik helped 
the villagers to prepare a fresh petition to the bishop, and promised 
to use his influence in its support. To the original petition Bishop 
Parvy replied by fixing October 20 as the day of the consecration 
and entrusting Canon Kurimsky with the ceremony ; to the second 
petition and to a third which insisted more strongly than ever that 
before the ceremony took place Hlinka must either be rehabilitated 
or finally condemned, the bishop returned no answer whatever. 
Deputations and messages were equally without effect. Father 
Pazurik did indeed obtain a postponement of the date, but merely 
in order to announce from all the pulpits of the neighborhood that 
the ceremony would definitely take place on Sunday, October 27. 
Alarmed at this, the villagers sent a fresh deputation to Pazurik and 
Fischer. They were met with evasive answers from the two priests, 
but it transpired at the subsequent trial that Pazurik ordered the 
painter to be finished with his work inside the church by the fol- 
lowing Sunday. On Saturday, the 26th, Bagkor the village mayor, 
visited Pazurik and advised him to abandon all idea of the consecra- 
tion, owing to the excitement which prevailed in Csernova. Ac- 
cording to Bagkor's own story, the priest replied, "Whether it ends 
well or ill, the consecration must take place." The villagers had al- 
ready telegraphed to the canon who was to officiate, that they would 
not permit the ceremony, and as a result Canon Kurimsky actually 
gave up his journey to Csernova. But the clergy of Rozsahegy, 
under the influence of the civil authorities, decided not to let the 
matter drop, and doubtless by way of pouring oil upon the troubled 
waters, sent gendarmes on the previous day to Csernova. As a last 
resort, the villagers had removed and hidden the various church 
utensils and vestments required for the ceremony; but the gen- 
darmes recovered these by force and set a watch upon the church. 
On Sunday morning early the villagers sent a further deputation to 
the Rozsahegy clergy, begging Fathers Pazurik and Fischer to re- 
nounce their intention, since the greatest excitement prevailed in 
the village. Mr. Andrahazy, the chief szolgabiro, who had received 
a report .from the gendarmes in the village, also strongly advised 



the priests to desist, since he could not answer for the consequences. 
Only when they stubbornly ignored his repeated warnings, did he 
give them an escort of gendarmes and instruct Mr. Pereszlenyi the 
under-szolgabiro to accompany them to Csernova. The latter, un- 
like some of those who accompanied him, is a genuine Magyar by 
birth, and is specially suited to his official position amid a Slovak 
population, by reason of the fact that he is ignorant of the Slovak 
language ! 

In two carriages the false apostles of Magyar culture set forth 
upon their self-imposed errand, escorted by Pereszlenyi and his 
eight gendarmes. At the entrance of the village of Csernova, in the 
long narrow street, a crowd of several hundred Slovak peasants had 
assembled. A solid phalanx blocked the way, the cortege was greet- 
ed with cries of "turn back," "We don't want you," and a spokesman 
came forward from the crowd and begged the szolgabiro to desist 
from the attempt to consecrate the church. The szolgabiro ordered 
his coachman to force a passage through the crowd, and when the 
latter attempted to obey, a number of young fellows seized the 
horses' heads and tried to turn the carriage back in the direction 
from which it came. At this moment stones must have been thrown 
from the back of the crowd; for when all was over, it was discov- 
ered that, though no one else in the party had been hurt, one of the 
gendarmes had received a slight injury in the face. Fortunately 
this could speedily be remedied by the application of some English 
sticking-plaster, and he was then doubtless free to assist his com- 
rades to remove the dead and dying. For without any preliminary 
warning to the crowd to disperse, the gendarmes began to fire upon 
the peasants. Some acounts assert that Pereszlenyi himself bran- 
dishing his stick, gave the order "quick fire" ; but he has publicly de- 
nied this in the press, and there is no good reason for doubting his 
word. The commander of the gendarmerie appears to have ordered 
one of his men to fire on any one whom he saw lifting stones, and 
hence the first victim was a woman, shot through the breast at a 
distance of two paces. The other gendarmes followed suit, though 
none had actually heard the command to fire. 

It matters very little who gave the order to fire ; one dreadful 
fact stands beyond all doubt. Without even resorting to the bayo- 
net, far less to the butt-end? of their rifles, the gendarmes fired in- 
discriminately into the crowd, packed together as it was in the nar- 
row roadway, and some are said to have reloaded and discharged 
again. Nine persons were killed on the spot, including two. women; 

10 



three more succumbed to their wounds in the course of the day; 
twelve more were seriously wounded, and three of their number 
have subsequently died. Among the slain was a woman far ad- 
vanced with child, who in her dying agony gave birth to an infant. 
Another was a girl of sixteen, who tried to seize a gendarme's rifle 
and was shot down in the attempt. The number of persons slightly 
wounded is said to have exceeded sixty. 

For a time all was in confusion. The panic-stricken peasants 
scattered in all directions, the clergy fled in just horror at the blood- 
shed caused by their own insistence. The szolgabiro, instead of 
sending for doctors in all haste, turned back to Rozsahegy to sum- 
mon the military and to make preparations for a judicial inquiry! 
A young peasant had the presence of mind to run for a doctor; and 
thus Dr. Srobar, the leader of the Rozsahegy Slovaks, was the first 
to appear upon the scene. This so incensed the szolgabiro, who 
soon afterwards returned to Csernova with a clerk to draw up a re- 
port, that he at once had the youth who had fetched Dr. Srobar ar- 
rested and put into prison. So great was the terror among the vil- 
lagers, that when Dr. Polgar, the official surgeon, arrived, hardly 
any of the wounded would trust themselves to his care. An even 
clearer idea of the depth of feeling among the peasantry may be ob- 
tained from the fact that the relatives of the victims refused the as- 
sistance of the Magyar clergy and buried their dead without the 
rites of the Church that all the wounded with one exception refused 
to receive a Magyar priest ; and that the eighteen persons who were 
arrested for their share in the incident declined to attend the Mag- 
yar prison chaplain's Mass. 

Such an incident naturally could not be ignored by Parliament, 
and two interpellations were brought before the Lower House in 
the course of a week. Despite the conflicting reports which were 
circulating in the Press, the Speaker, Mr. Justh, did not regard the 
matter as urgent, and the discussion was not open till Wednesday, 
October 30th. 

Mr. Hodza, the Slovak leader, in addressing his interpellation 
to the Minister of the Interior, was repeatedly interrupted by loud 
and hostile cries. The Deputy-Speaker rebuked him for speaking 
at such length, and actually insinuated that he was treating the in- 
cident in a cynical manner. When Mr. Hodza protested against 
this charge, he was at once called to order, and when he apologized 
for the length of his explanation, a deputy cried out that he was 
simply talking to waste the House's time. When at length, roused 

11 



by other frivolous and insulting interruptions, he went on to inquire, 
"who then were the murderers?" he was greeted by a storm of abuse 
and shouts of "You are the murderers." Mr. Rakovszky was obliged 
to suspend the sitting for five minutes, and even after proceedings 
were resumed a second suspension was almost rendered necessary. 
But if the attitude of the House in general was sufficiently repre- 
hensible, the reply of Count Andrassy was even more extraordinary. 
He began by expressing his surprise that Mr. Hodza had dared to 
interpellate in this particular matter. He then stated that accord- 
ing to information received, all idea of consecrating the church had 
been abandoned, and that the clergy had come with the very object 
of calming the people and of announcing that the consecration 
would not take place. It is unfortunate that Count Andrassy made 
no attempt to explain why the clergy charged with such a message 
(which they must have known would be received with the greatest 
delight by the people), took an escort of gendarmes with them, to 
say nothing of an unpopular official who could not speak the lan- 
guage of the villagers, and why on finding a large crowd blocking 
their progress, they did not at once make known their errand. In- 
credible as it may seem, the explanation was regarded as satisfac- 
tory by the House, which gave new and signal proof of its racial in- 
tolerance by its attitude to the whole affair. But it sets too great a 
.demand on the credulity of external observers, and his speech will 
go far to confirm the impression, already widespread in Hungary, 
that Count Andrassy's utterances on the racial question do more 
harm to his own cause than all the mistakes of the Coalition Govern- 
ment or the unlovely Jingoism of its satellites in Parliament. 

After this promising beginning Count Andrassy went on to as- 
sert that the standpoint of the villagers, in not allowing anyone save 
Hlinka to consecrate the Church, was in itself an offence against all 
order in State and in Church — an assertion which was greeted with 
stormy applause from the House. When, he added, the crowd 
threw stones, and caught hold of the rifles of the gendarmes, their 
captain gave the order to fire ; and this being so, he, the Minister of 
the Interior, took full responsibility for their action, and saw not 
the slightest reason for suspending the officials concerned from of- 
fice. In conclusion. Count Andrassy quoted from an article pub- 
lished some months before in Mr. Hodza's paper, Slovensky Tyz- 
dennik, entitled "We can wait no longer." This article referred to 
the victory of the well-known Roumanian priest Father .Lucaciu at 
a recent bye-election, despite the swarms of gendarmes and troops 

12 



employed by the authorities, and contained the following passage: 
"The Roumanians are not afraid of a little blood ; and the result was 
that this nation has won. But we Slovaks are but a timid people. 
We have never indulged in violence, and so our position is a worse 
one than that of the Roumanians." Only those who know of the 
veritable pitched battles by which alone the Roumanians have some- 
times managed even to reach the poll, can realize the terrible truth 
of these words. 

Mr. Giinther, the Minister of Justice, rode the same high horse 
as his colleague, actually boasted of the withdrawal of the postal de- 
livery from certain foreign newspapers, and appeased the outraged 
feelings of the House by the assurance that eight Press actions were 
pending against Mr. Hodza's journal alone, to say nothing of other 
Slovak newspapers. Thus an incident which could never have oc- 
curred in most Western countries, or whose occurrence would have 
caused the fall of the Government, was merely treated as a pretext 
for renewed abuse and persecution of the wicked "Panslavs." 

Needless to say, the attitude of the Magyar Press corresponded 
to that of the parliamentary jingoes and even the Pester Lloyd, 
which treated the matter with conspicuous moderation, wrote as 
follows: "We shall say no more of the Hlinkas and the Hodzas. 
These are small fry, who live upon blind nationalism, just as those 
amongst us who rise to honors and riches through frenzied Chau- 
vinism. People of that sort one seizes by the collar if they break 
the law, and basta." The writer takes himself more seriously when 
he goes on to argue that prosecutions are no policy, and that the 
general policy of the Government towards the nationalities must be 
changed. "But, " he adds, "we want to be the masters in our own 
house." Here is the crux of the whole Hungarian question. Soft 
phrases about the policy of Deak, comradeship, "the moral suasion 
of culture and law," are mere waste of breath, so long as this odious 
phrase is upheld. If the Magyars are the masters, the other races 
must be servants, and while this relationship subsists it is absurd to 
talk of equality. 

The unhappy incident of Csernova was used by Father Hlinka's 
enemies to blacken his reputation still further, and at the same time 
to touch a weak spot in his armour by making his sister the scape- 
goat of the subsequent trial. The story was spread abroad that 
Father Hlinka wished at all costs to prevent the consecration of the 
church, incited the people of Csernova to resistance, and then de- 
camped to Moravia, in order to be out of harm's way. The true 

13 



facts are very different. More than three months before the massa- 
cre Father Hlinka had made arrangements with Czech friends to 
give a series of lectures upon the Slovaks the following autumn in 
a number of Bohemian and Moravian towns. The first lecture was 
to have been held at Goding on October 13 but a week before Hlinka 
sent the following telegram to the professor who had been entrusted 
with the arrangements : "Impossible owing to dedication of church 
in Csernova and possible visit of Bishop : — Andreas." Hlinka's idea 
that the Bishop was coming proved to be based on a misunderstand- 
ing; and as the dedication did not take place on the 13th, and as 
there seemed no prospect of any fresh arrangement, Hlinka yielded 
to the pressure of friends, and left Rozsahegy on October 17 for 
Moravia. During the next few days he lectured at Olmiitz, Krem- 
sier and other places, and was in Goding when a telegram arrived 
announcing the massacre. In his horror and excitement at the news, 
he wished to hurry back to Rozsahegy, but his friends, knowing 
that this would merely have led to his arrest, restrained him with 
difficulty and eventually induced him to continue his course of lec- 
tures as announced. Yet at this very time certain Magyar news- 
papers were spreading the story that Father Hlinka, disguised in 
woman's clothing, had agitated among the peasantry for days be- 
fore the massacre and fled out of danger at the critical moment ! 

Father Hlinka was probably well advised in continuing his lec- 
tures, for they contributed materially to the storm of indignation 
which the incident of Csernova aroused in Bohemia, and indeed in 
most parts of the Austrian Empire. Father Sillinger, a Moravian 
member of the Reichsrath, brought forward an interpellation on the 
subject, which led to a heated demonstration against Magyar policy. 
The speeches of Professor Redlich for the German Liberals and 
Professor Masaryk for the Czechs accurately reflected the opinion 
of most Austrians ; and Dr. Weisskirchner, the President of the 
House and one of the leaders of the Christian Socialist party, for- 
mally expressed the sympathy of the House towards the relatives of 
the victims. This attitude was keenly resented by the Hungarian 
Parliament as an unwarranted interference in the private affairs of 
an independent state, and mutual recriminations between the two 
countries were the result. In this connection it is impossible to be- 
stow full approval upon either Parliament. On the one hand, Hun- 
gary was fully entitled to treat as an insult the cries of Austrian 
hotheads for active intervention. On the other hand, no true be- 
liever in the Dual System could concede the theory of absolute non- 
14 , 



interference between two States which are interdependent, not in- 
dependent, of each other. Had the Csernova incident occurred upon 
the Servian or Roumanian frontier, it might easily have led to com- 
plications with Belgrad or Bucarest, such as must have involved not 
merely Hungary but Austria as well. The idea that Austria must 
blindly and unquestionably follow Hungary, or Hungary Austria, 
in dealing- with some internal affair which influences opinion in both . 
countries, and their relations to neighboring states, is altogether in- 
tolerable and would speedily prove fatal to the partnership. It is 
only necessary to consult the history of the last half century in or- 
der to realize that the theory of non-interference has never been 
acted upon in the past, and that Hungary has been the chief of- 
fender. 

'Eighteen villagers were at once arrested for complicity in what 
was officially described as "the revolt of Csernova" ; and a number 
of gendarmes were quartered in the village for months afterwards. 
The gendarmes who had fired the volley were brought before a 
court martial but acquitted of all blame. But this was not deemed 
sufficient by the local authorities, who were determined that all the 
responsibility should be thrown upon Hlinka and his supporters. 
On March 2, 1908, therefore, no fewer than fifty-nine persons were 
brought to trial before the court of Rozsahegy on a charge of "vio- 
lence against the authorities and against private individuals." As 
usual the presiding judge was Mr. Geza Chudovszky, Father 
Hlinka's leading opponent in the district ; and the fact that the lat- 
ter's sister was the principal defendant merely serves to emphasize 
his unfitness to conduct this new trial. In such circumstances a se- 
vere sentence was to be expected ; but the cruel truth surpassed all 
expectations. Mrs. Fulla, mee Hlinka — a woman of fifty-seven — 
was condemned to three years' imprisonment while twenty-two men 
and sixteen women (including one who had lost her husband in the 
massacre, who was herself severely wounded in the breast, who had 
seven children, and against whom nothing was proved save that she 
was present in the crowd) were sentenced to terms varying from 
eighteen to six months' imprisonment. Thus a total of thirty-six 
years and six months' imprisonment was imposed on these unhappy 
peasants for acting as every self-respecting man or woman would 
have acted in their position. 

A full account of this astounding trial would form a highly in- 
structive commentary on the Magyar judicial attitude towards the 
subject races; but the proportions of the present volume compel me 

15 



to be brief, and I must confine myself to recounting a few of its 
most salient features. 

It was, of course, established beyond all doubt that the villagers 
had agitated previously against the ceremony ; indeed Father Pa- 
zurik actually received a threatening letter, warning him that he 
would be beaten if he attempted to consecrate the church. It was 
further proved that the crowd resisted and threatened the authori- 
ties on their arrival, and one gendarme swore that he heard cries of 
"Kill the Jews," which might have referred to the Hebrew origin of 
Father Fischer. But so far from blaming them for their resistance, 
I fail to see what else they could have done without sinking to the 
level of mere beasts of burden. 

The fifty-nine defendants were selected in an entirely arbitrary 
manner. Those peasants who came forward as witnesses at the pre- 
liminary inquiry in order to establish their alibi, found themselves 
brought to trial for the same offence as those arrested at the time ; 
and this wholesale indictment entirely denuded the defence of wit- 
nesses, since all those who could give first hand evidence concerning 
the incident were either killed or in the dock. In such circumstances 
the principal witnesses were the gendarmes, the szolgabiro and the 
two priests, all of whom were naturally hostile to the defandants. 

The judge conducted the trial with extreme severity and par- 
tiality, repeatedly browbeating and contradicting the witnesses. 
One witness, Francis Holota, he interrupted with the words, "That 
is a lie, I will not let you say more of that." When one of the de- 
fendants, in cross-examination, asked that Father Fischer should be 
heard in support of a certain statement, Chudovszky exclaimed, 
"Kindly don't offer me advice. We shall soon see whether there is 
any truth in your tittle-tattle." One witness, Stephen Fiath, in his 
excitement cried, "It was a murder, just a regular murder"; where- 
upon the judge fined him 100 crowns, with the alternative of five 
days' arrest. When a female witness, Ludmilla Druppa, asserted 
that Mrs. Fulla incited the crowd to throw stones at the gendarmes 
(a fact which the great majority of witnesses denied), and when 
Mrs. Fulla indignantly interrupted and called the witness a liar, the 
judge promptly imposed on her a fine of 100 crowns. On the other 
hand, he treated witnesses for the prosecution with marked leniency, 
refused to press home facts which seemed to favor the accused, and 
more than once prohibited counsel for the defence from questioning 
and cross-examining. A good deal turned on the question whether 
Pereszlenyi's coachman used his whip against the crowd, as this 

16 



might be regarded as a provocation. The villagers maintained that 
he did, while the gendarmes to a man denied it. Yet Mr. Chudov- 
szky refused to permit the coachman himself to be put on oath ! In 
the same way he would not allow the official report of the coroner 
to be read in court, though one of the gendarmes maintained that a 
peasant had seized hold of his bayonet and no trace of such a wound 
was to be found on any of the survivors. It had been established 
at the inquest that all the wounds were in vital parts, and their po- 
sition proved the gendarmes to have fired upon the unfortunate 
peasants in their flight; and it was to prevent the publication of 
these awkward facts that Mr. Chudovszky disallowed the reading 
of the report. 

It was proved that no one was injured by the stones which the 
villagers threw, so that the danger of the priests and gendarmes 
cannot have been very great. Indeed, only one person out of the 
entire fifty-nine admitted having thrown a stone ; only against the 
first seven was any direct share in the resistance proved ; the re- 
mainder were merely present in the crowd and raised cries and 
shouts of protest. Judgment was therefore based upon an ana- 
chronous provision of the Hungarian criminal code, by which col- 
lective ofi:ences are punishable more severely than individual of- 
fences. The judge doubtless had in his mind a famous pronounce- 
ment of the Supreme Court that mere passive presence in a crowd 
guilty of excesses constitutes a committal of the same offence. 

Father Pazurik maintained that he and his colleague, when they 
went to Csernova, had no intention of consecrating the church with- 
out the consent of the villagers, and merely wished to read' to them 
a letter of Hlinka, which approved of the ceremony. The improba- 
bility of this story may be gathered from the fact that the dedication 
had been announced for that day from all the pulpits of the neigh- 
borhood, that a deputation from Csernova had in vain urged Pa- 
zurik to desist, and that the szolgabiro invited a friend whom he met 
on the road to come with them "to the consecration." The priests 
appear to have brought with them all that was requisite for the serv- 
ice, but this they explained at the trial by their intention to tele- 
phone for the Bishop's permission to proceed with the ceremony, in 
the event of the villagers expressing their approval. Considering 
that they only arrived in Csernova at 10:15, that the nearest tele- 
phone was well over a mile distant, and that some delay would have 
been almost inevitable in establishing connection with Szepes Var- 
alja (seventy miles away), it is difficult to see how they could have 

17 



hoped in any circumstances to begin the ceremony before midday, 
after which hour high mass may not be celebrated. In short, their 
story can scarcely be taken seriously; either they had already ob- 
tained the Bishop's permission, or else they went prepared to con- 
duct the ceremony by force. The fact that Canon Kurimszky, who 
was originally deputed to officiate, never came at all, suggests that 
the former alternative is the true one. 

Mr. Andahazy, the chief szolgabiro of the district, gave evi- 
dence that on the morning of the massacre he had received reports 
from the gendarmes in Csernova warning him of the excitement in / 
the village, that he called upon Fathers Pazurik and Fischer and re- 
peatedly urged them to abandon the project. When they still per- 
sisted, he instructed Mr. Pereszlenyi to accompany them, but to 
withdraw all the gendarmes immediately if they should meet with 
any resistance. Both the priests and Pereszlenyi, in the course of 
their evidence, asserted that they had merely met each other acci- 
dentally on the road to Csernova, but the latter, when confronted* 
with his chief, admitted that he might possibly have received in- 
structions to go with them, though he had no recollection of receiv- 
ing them. It is highly characteristic that Mr. Andahazy, who alone 
of all the authorities, showed signs of tact and humanity, has since 
the massacre been removed from office, and Pereszlenyi promoted 
to his place ! 

Perhaps, however, the most astounding incident in the whole 
trial is the fact that the same Pereszlenyi acted as reporter for the 
Hungarian Telegraphic Bureau, and thus was responsible for the 
reports of the trial in the Hungarian Press. As Mr. Chudovszky 
would not allow a single representative of Slovak or Czech news- 
papers entrance to the court, the outside world was mainly depend- 
ant for its information concerning the trial upon one of the chief 
witnesses for the prosecution, who had taken a prominent part in 
the actual massacre, and whose reputation depended upon the con- 
viction of the prisoners. 

I think I have said enough to show that the Csernova trial was 
a mere travesty of justice, and that the sentence was literally a pun- 
ishment imposed for daring to survive massacre. The Court of R6- 
zsahegy has no mercy: for it justice and equity alike are a sealed 
book, and from its brutal decisions we may appeal to a higher court, 
to the public opinion of the civilized world. If the incident had oc- 
curred in Turkey or in Russia, it would have aroused a storm of in- 
dignation throughout Europe ; and the fact that it actually occurred 

18 



in the country of the Golden Bull and the Pragmatic Santion is no 
reason why it should be allowed to pass\unpunished. Nor it it 
unreasonable to express the hope that the veii^«alileEmperor-King, 
on the occasion of his impending Diamond Jubilee, may'see fit to 
extend a pardon to Father Hlinka and the victims of the Csernova 
trial, even if no general amnesty should be proclaimed for political 
offences. — "Racial Problems in Hungary," p. 339-351. 

REASON FOR REV. HLINKA'S SUSPENSION. 

Father Hlinka, before entering upon his term of two years' im- 
prisonment imposed upon him for speeches delivered on an electoral 
platform, published in the Ludove Noviny, a farewell article to his 
parishioners. He went to prison, he declared, with a clear con- 
science, knowing that he must suffer for the rights of the Slovak 
people. On his return he will contend for Slovak liberty with re- 
doubled energy; persecution and imprisonment will not intimidate 
him. For this article a fresh action was brought against the unfor- 
tunate priest; and on May 4, 1908, he was sentenced to eighteen 
months' additional imprisonment and a fine of 400 crowns. The de- 
liberate aim of the authorities is to break him in health and spirit 
by prolonged imprisonment ; nothing else can explain their vindict- 
ive and cowardly action. 

SUMMARY OF POLITICAL TRIALS. 

If we summarize these trials, we find that between the years 
1886 and 1896 no fewer than 363 Roumanians were committed for 
political offences, and that sentences amounting to ninety-three 
years one month and twenty-three days were imposed upon them. 
Lxcluding those cases which were tried before the ordinary courts, 
we find that from 1884 to 1894, thirty-six trials of Roumanians took 
place before Hungarian- Press Juries, and that in these sixty-six per- 
sons were condemned to terms of imprisonment amounting in all to 
fifty-three years and to fines whose total exceeded 18,000 crowns. 
Between 1897 and 1908, 214 Roumanians were sentenced to thirty- 
five years nine months' imprisonment and to fines amounting to 51,- 
937 crowns. Between 1906 and 1908, no fewer than 560 Slovaks 
were sentenced to a total of ninety-one years seven months and 42,- 
121 crowns. The fierceness of the persecution under the Coalition 
Government becomes apparent from the fact that between June, 
1906, and June, 1907, 245 Slovaks were condemned to nineteen years 
and four months ; in the last three months of 1907, twenty-six more 

19 



to a total of three years, and in the first three months of 1908, 48 
more to a total of 39 years and 6 months, in addition to fines and 
heavy costs. Drawing the balance, we reach the following- remark- 
able total : Between the years 1886 and 1908 (end of August) 890 
non-Magyars were condemned for purely political offences, to a to- 
tal of 232 years 6 months and 2 days, in addition to heavy costs and 
148,232 crowns in fines. 

In this connection it would be unjust if I were to pass over in 
silence the persecutions to which the Socialist Press of Hungary has 
been subjected. A great deal might be written of the manner in 
which the Liberals under Banffy repressed the agrarian movement 
of 1898. The outside world has for forty years past accepted the 
Liberals of Hungary at their own value, and rarely troubled itself 
to put their principles to the hard test of fact. The so-called Lib- 
erals have been replaced by a party which is professedly Radical and 
democratic; and yet the Coalition Government has outbid all its 
predecessors in its severity towards the representatives of Labour 
and of Socialism. Half a dozen instances of its true attitude will 
therefore not be out of place in the present volume. — "Racial Problems 
in Hungary." p. 309-310. 
Some Examples of the Persecutions of the Slovaks by the Magyars 

During Just One Year, From Augusit 1906 to August 1907. 

On August 27, 1906, Julius Banari, a joiner, of Zuberca, county 
Arva, was sentenced at Ruzomberok to three months in the state 
prison and to pay a fine of fifty crowns, for "instigation against the 
Magyar nationality." He had criticized the recent school laws 
(passed at the instance of Count Apponyi, then the minister of edu- 
cation), and had stated that it was absurd to torment non-Magyar 
peasant children with the Magyar language. 

On September 24, 1906, the Curia (Court of Appeals) at Buda- 
pest affirmed the verdict, wherein Milan Hodza, editor of the "Slo- 
vak Weekly" was sentenced to one month in the state prison and 
to pay a fine of two hundred crowns. 

On October 26, 1906, Dusan Porubsky, editor of the "Slovak 
Weekly" was sentenced by a jury court at Budapest to pay a fine of 
500 crowns for libel because he had published a communication in 
which the tyrannical conduct of a notary (a public official) had been 
censured. 

On September 16, 1906, there were sentenced in Novy Sad, 
Southern Hungary, two citizens, each one to three months' impris- 
onment and to pay a fine of 100 crowns, because they had in a 'no- 

20 



ticeable' manner left a church, when a certain teacher appointed 
contrary to law and the wish of the parishioners, began to play on 
the church organ. 

On November 16, 1906, Rev. Ferdinand Juriga, a Slovak mem- 
ber of Parliament and a Roman Catholic Priest, was sentenced by a 
jury court at Pressburg to two years in state prison and to pay a 
fine of 1200 crowns, being charged with having written two news- 
paper articles, and therefore guilty of "instigation against the Mag- 
yar nationality." 

On December 6, 1906, there were sentenced by the court at Ru- 
zomberok for "instigation against the Magyar nationality," the fol- 
lowing : Rev. Andrew Hlinka, a Roman Catholic priest, to two years 
state prison and to pay a fine of 1500 crowns; Dr. Vavro Srobar, a 
physician, to one year state prison and to pay a line of 900 crowns ; 
Andrew Jancek, a manufacturer, to six months state prison and to 
pay a fine of 500 crowns ; Duro Gregus, a baker, to five months in 
state prison and to pay a fine of 200 crowns ; Peter Cheben, a cob- 
bler, to five months in state prison and to pay a fine of 100 crowns ; 
Rev. Joseph Tomik, a Roman Catholic priest to four months in 
state prison and to pay a fine of 300 crowns; Anton Matosovsky, to 
two months in state prison and to pay a fine of 100 crowns ; Michael 
Serafin, to two months in state prison and to pay a fine of 100 
crowns ; Joseph Janovec Janov, a peasant, to two months in state 
prison and to pay a fine of 100 crowns ; Stephen Jesencky, a cobbler, 
to two months in state prison and to pay a fine of 100 crowns ; John 
Vikolinsky, to two months in state prison and to pay a fine of 100 
crowns ; being a total of five years and six months in the state prison 
and 4,680 crowns. 

On January 31, 1907, there was sentenced at Pressburg, for a 
breach of the peace and for "instigation against the Magyar nation- 
ality," which offences, it was charged, had taken place at a politi- 
cal meeting in a campaign for election to Parliament, Beta Bus- 
kova, to five days' imprisonment in jail and to pay a fine of 60 
crowns. 

On February 11, 1907, the manager of the "People's Gazette," 
Robert Svoch, was sentenced by a jury court at Pressburg to one 
year's imprisonment in the common jail and to pay a fine of 800 
crowns. He was sentenced for "instigation against the Magyar na- 
tionality" incurred in four articles published in that paper and for 
"laudatio criminis" (the lauding of crime), and in a longer article 
published in the same newspaper, wherein he requested the people 

21 



to offer prayers for Rev. Andrew Hlinka and the other sentenced 
Slovaks. 

On February 19, 1907, there was sentenced by a jury court at 
Pressburg, for "instigation against the Magyar nationaHty" and the 
Magyar constitution (!) a co-worker on the "People's Gazette," 
Martin Albiny, to one year in state prison and to pay a fine of 400 
crowns, because of two articles appearing in that newspaper. 

On February 28, 1907, Igor Hrusovsky, editor of the "Povazske 
Noviny" was sentenced by a jury court at Pressburg to two months 
in common jail and to pay a fine of 400 crowns. In his newspaper 
he had criticised a Magyar teacher. 

On March 27, 1907, Dusan Porubsky, editor of the "Slovak 
Weekly" was sentenced by a jury court at Budapest to. one year in 
state prison and to pay a fine of 1200 crowns. He had been charged 
with "instigation against the Magyar nationality" because of ar- 
ticles published in that paper. 

On April 12, 1907, Ivan Pivko, editor of the "People's Gazette" 
was sentenced by a court at Pressburg to fourteen days in the state 
prison and to pay a fine of 900 crowns, on account of speeches he 
had made during a political campaign in which it was claimed he 
was guilty of "instigation against the Magyar nationality." 

On April 8, 1907, there were sentenced six citizens of Lab, each 
of whom had to pay a fine of 50 crowns, because they had begun a 
collection with which money they desired to pay the fine imposed 
upon Rev. Juriga, a member of Parliament, who, in addition there- 
to, had also been sentenced to two years in state- prison. 

On April 19, 1907, Ignac Polak, a peasant of Hochstet in the 
county of Pressburg, was sentenced by a jury court at Pressburg to 
three months' imprisonment and to pay a fine of 100 crowns for "in- 
stigation against the Magyar nationality." This punishable offense, 
it was charged, arose out of the publication of an article entitled, 
"What the Slovak Should be Like." 

On April 24, 1907, two citizens of Malacky were sentenced for 
breach of the peace during a political meeting, one to 14 days and 
the other to three days in common jail, because they had disagreed 
with the renegade Trubini, the Magyar candidate for member of 
Parliament. 

On April 24, 1907, Anton Maly was sentenced at Pressburg to 
14 days and Helena Krai to three days in common jail. Both of 
these had protested against an effort on the part of the renegades to 

I : i ; ^ I , 1 

22 



break up a meeting- of voters, which had been called by Rev. Juriga, 
a member of Parliament. 

On May 1, 1907, Rev. Andrew Hlinka, was sentenced at Roznm- 
berok to one month's imprisonment and to pay a fine of 500 crowns, 
having- been charged with making accusations against a Magyar 
county official, Schwertner. 

On May 2, 1907, there were sentenced by the court at Press- 
burg, F. Simek and 23 women, of Zohor, a total sentence of three 
years, ten months and ten days' imprisonment being imposed upon 
them. 

These people had requested that Chaplain Zak, a priest much 
beloved in the community, be appointed to the vacant post of parish 
priest. The church authorities who were working with the Magyar 
chauvinists refused this rightful request of the parishioners, and ap- 
pointed Imrich Hojsik, a Magyarizing priest. At his installation 
the women drove him from the parish. 

On June 17, 1907, five citizens of Lab were sentenced by the 
court at Malacky for "laudatio criminis" (lauding crime), because 
during a procession on Corpus Christi day they had placed in the 
windows of their dwellings pictures of Rev. Ferdinand Juriga, a 
Slovak member of Parliament who had been sentenced to two years 
In the state prison for "instigation." 

One of these men was later pardoned. The other four, Ignac 
Kovar, Vendelin Pir, Jacob Toman and Nikodim Dvorak, were each 
sentenced to three months' imprisonment. 

On June 9 and 10, 1907, examinations were held in the schools 
of Myjava. The school children decorated their school with small 
Slovak flags for this occasion. 

The szolgabiro (a local executive official, for whom there is 
no exact equivalent in English), saw in these flags the Croatian 
national colors and in their display "a willful attack upon the inde- 
pendence of the Hungarian state," and punished for this offense the 
persons he held responsible therefor, Paul Kulisek, the school 
teacher, Vladimir Lajda and Michael Simonovic, by committing 
each of them to 15 days imprisonment and to pay a fine of 200 
crowns. 

In the same month, there was sentenced by a jury court at 
Pressburg, Joseph Teslik, a printer of Skalica, to 14 days imprison- 
ment. In his establishment he was printing a Bohemian news- 
paper, "The Guard in Slovakland," which is published in Moravia, 
a country across the border and outside of Hungary. It is intended 

23 



for the Slovak districts of Moravia and in this newspaper the Mag- 
yar officials discovered an article "of instigation against the Magyar 
nationality." 

On July 15, 1907, there was sentenced by a court at Trencin, 
Stephen Gablik, a peasant, to three months imprisonment and to 
pay a fine of fifty crowns for "instigation against the Magyar na- 
tionality." He was guilty of this offense because at a public meet- 
ing he had criticised the conduct of the priest, Ignac Mandl, who 
had vilified Slovak newspapers and persons from the pulpit. 

And so on they continue in this "country of freedom" freely 
to judge and to punish. 

On July 21, 1907, three Bohemian tourists were arrested at 
the watering resort Lucky, who had been accused by the local no- 
tary (a public official), that they had carried on conversations with 
women and children and were gathering information about the Mag- 
yarization of the schools. One of these tourists, F. Krystin, was 
kept in prison for four weeks pending investigation, and was not 
granted his freedom until the Minister of Justice at Vienna in- 
tervened. 

THE OPINIONS OF SOME OF EUROPE'S GREAT SCHOL- 
ARS AND HISTORIANS ABOUT THE MAGYARS. 

The great French scholar and historian, Louis Leger, in his His- 
tory of Austria-Hungary, published in 1899, comments as follows : 

"There is no doubt that the triumph of Francis Deak was the 
triumph of a good cause, defended with courage, honesty and persever- 
ance, and liberal Europe did well when she applauded it. But the bril- 
liant picture has more than one shadow. With their usual selfishness, 
the Magyars thought of no one but themselves. They have had re- 
course to measures far from legitimate, in order to reduce to obedience 
some of the races, such as the Croats, who proved refractory to their 
leadership; and they used their victory as a means for enabling them 
to oppress with harsh laws the Roumanians, Servians, and Slovaks, 
whose grievances have reached Western Europe repeatedly through 
the press. All the non-Magyar races have remained in a kind of serf- 
dom, except the Croats, who, thanks to the strength of their historical 
claims, have succeeded in obtaining a fair share of self-government 
and a special ministry at Pesth. 

"History of Austro Hungary." — p.p. 576 — 577. 

The conditions according to Leger who wrote in the 80's, were 
such as to receive condemnation at his hands, though they became 

24 



worse as time went on, as is attested to by Seton- Watson in his 
"Racial Problems in Hungary," published in 1910, and by Drage in 
his review of Austria-Hungary, published in 1909. 

PERSECUTION IN CROATIA 

Even as it is, Croatia has been governed absolutely since Feb- 
ruary, 1908; Baron Ranch has degraded the high office of Ban of 
Croatia to that of a mere "exponent of the Hungarian Govern- 
ment"; he and his ministers (sectional chiefs) have not a single 
follower in the Diet of Agram, and therefore the Diet is not allowed 
to sit. The Croatian Ausgleich has been violated by the important 
Railways Act of last year ; the autonomy of the Croatian University 
is infringed, and the prisons of Croatia are being filled with persons 
suspected of Pan-Serb leanings. All these oppressive measures have 
only served to strengthen the Serbo-Croatian solidarity; and the 
Magyars, who deluged Europe with charges of Austrian absolutism, 
have themselves been converted by an irony of fate into the stern 
upholders of Absolutism in Croatia. — "Racial Problems in Hun-- 
gary," pp. 415-415. 

Drage says concerning Magyar oppression and intolerance: 

"In 1867, however, a nationalities congress was held in Budapest 
to declare the needs of the different races, and a programme was form- 
ulated, according to which the State was to be reconstructed, on the 
basis of nationalities, in territories, equality of language being acknowl- 
edged. The Magyars resisted the suggested federation, being unwilling 
to infringe the unity of the State, though they were inspired at this 
date by a liberal desire to give equal rights to all citizens. Hence the 
nationalities law was drawn up, with the object of maintaining unity 
without enforcing uniformity. In the opinion of Eotvos, complete 
Magyarization was an unrealizable folly; his ambition which was 
shared by Deak, was to make the various peoples, not Magyars, but 
loyal subjects of the Hungarian State. 

"The law of 1868 proclaims Magyar to be the language of the 
State in virtue of the political unity of the nation. In justice and 
administration the language of the people concerned was to be used 
as far as possible. The churches were free, in general, to use the 
language they chose. The communes had the same privilege. In the 
public schools the Minister of Education was to direct the language 
of instruction. In primary schools the nationalities were to be taught 

25 



in their mother-tongue though Magyar was made the exclusive lan- 
guage of higher education. Finally, employments were to be open 
to all, irrespective of race. This very liberal statute was stigmatized 
by the nationalities as inadequate, but there was no opportunity for 
seeing whether it would solve the problem, as it remained a dead letter. 

The conciliatory policy of Deak and Eotvos was soon abandoned, 
and in 1879 and 1883 statutes were passed limiting the privileges 
granted to the nationalities in the matter of instruction. For thirty 
years non-Magyars were virtually excluded from Parliament. Gov- 
ernment members were almost invariably returned, even if bribery, 
and finally brute force of the soldiery, had to be resorted to. The 
Magyars, in fact, have treated the non-Magyars as poHtical helots, 
regarding their own interests as the common, and indeed the only, 
interests of the State. All public institutions are made instruments 
of Magyarization, whether posts, telegraphs, railways, or law courts; 
finally, the hoped-for Hungarian army is to complete the process. 

"The principle of Magyarization is expressed by Knatchbull 
Hugessen in these words : 'There never has been any recognized citi- 
zenship in Hungary but Magyar citizenship. * * * From the time of 
St. Stephen to the present day there has been, and is, no territory in 
Hungary but the territory of the sacred Crown, and no political rights 
save those conferred by membership of that Crown.' This, no doubt, 
is the excuse for the fact that the nationalities law is broken in almost 
every detail at the present time. Yet, in the words of a writer in the 
Spectator of January 16, 1909, 'no State can prosper in the long run 
which refuses to placate a large part of its constituents.' The Magyars 
are not justified in their violation of Lord Acton's principle that 'a 
State which cannot satisfy different races condemns itself, and if it 
labors to neutralize, absorb or expel them, it destroys its own vitality." 

"The abuses of justice, of which the Polonyi trial was a flagrant 
example, although plaintiff and defendant and all concerned were 
Magyars, are, as may be supposed, still more glaring when the de- 
fendants are non-Magyars, and accused of incitement against the 
Magyar State idea. According, indeed, to Father Hlinka, who was 
given a heavy sentence for this truthful statement, the non-Magyars 
'stand like dumb cattle before the Magyar courts, of whose proceedings 
they understand nothing.' * * ^ Despite forty years of untram- 
melled Magyarization, 40 per cent, of the Hungarian population do 
not know the language of the State. * * * 

"If, as one partisan writer maintains, universary suffrage in Hun- 
gary would only intensify the Hungarian character of the State, why 

26 



was no Government Bill introduced till the autumn of 1908, in spite of 
Government promises, and why is there, at the commencement of 1909, 
little chance of any such reform becoming law ? The Magyars dismiss 
foreign hostile opinion of this policy of Magyarization, condemned 
long ago by the greatest Hungarian statesmen, as the ex-parte state- 
ments of self-interested agitators and humanitarian philosophers, and 
they forget the danger of embittering not only the Roumanians and 
the Slav races of Hungary, but the Roumanians of Roumania and the 
Slavs of Austria, Russia, and the Balkan States, while they also alienate 
the many warm well-wishers that Hungary possesses in English- 
speaking countries. * * * 

"To the disinterested and sympathetic spectator it appears that 
the Magyars are committing an anachorism when they attempt to 
found a united and living nation on the dead bodies of the diverse 
nationalities. Magyar sympathizers are unwilling that those who 
were once oppressed should have to confess themselves oppressors, 
unable to give to subordinate races the sympathy, 'which they once 
craved and obtained for themselves.' Auerbach asks the pertinent 
question whether the safety of Europe and the good progress of 
humanity would really be advanced if, in the 'noble and high quar- 
rel' being fought out beneath the Carpathians, the Magyars were the 
victors. The writer in the Spectator on January 16, 1909, entertains 
no doubt on the subject; peace, he considers, will not be preserved 
by the suppression of Slavonic sentiment, and in this connection 
it must not be forgotten that, if the old Pan-Slavism no longer ex- 
ists, there is a 'newer and looser form of Slavonic affinity' which is 
'fuller of pos-sibilities.' " 

Drage, "Austria-Hungary," at pages 564 to 569. 

THE RACIAL QUESTION— A SUMMARY 

[Reprinted from "Racial Problems in Hungary" by Seton- Watson.] 
"Race is everything: there is no other truth." — Disraeli. 
"A state which is incompetent to satisfy different races, con- 
demns itself; a state which labors to neutralize, to absorb or to 
expel them, destroys its own vitality; a state which does not in- 
clude them, is destitute of the chief basis of self-government." — 
Lord Acton. 

In the preceding seven chapters I have endeavored to analyze 
the chief grievances from which the non-Magyar races of Hun- 
gary are suffering, and to show that the Law guaranteeing the 

27 



Equal Rights of the Nationalities has long remained a dead letter 
in almost every particular. Primary and secondary education, in- 
stead of resting upon the principle of instruction in the mother 
tongue, has been for a generation, past enlisted in the cause of 
Magyarization ; the state never erects non-Magyar schools, and 
only grants subsidies to those already existing, in order thereby 
to enforce a stricter control. The local administration is in the 
hands of a narrow and powerful caste, which by means of an il- 
liberal franchise is able to hold the non-Magyars in a permanent 
minority, and to exclude them from the control of their local af- 
fairs ; the officials treat the Nationalities as foreign interlopers, and 
show little or no consideration for their languages and national 
customs and traditions. A far-reaching system of electoral cor- 
ruption and gerrymandering, backed by a complicated and unequal 
franchise, makes it impossible for one-half of the population to 
gain more than twenty-five seats in Parliament and concentrates 
all political power in the hands of a small clique of influential 
nobles and ecclesiastics, professional politicians and Jewish finan- 
ciers. The dependence of the Judicature upon the executive ren- 
ders the non-Magyar leaders liable to continual vexations at the 
hands of the law; judges, prosecutors and juries are all alike re- 
cruited from the ranks of their bitterest enemies, and a hostile ver- 
dict is thus only too often a foregone conclusion. The persecu- 
tion of the non-Magyar Press is carried on with the deliberate 
purpose of reducing it to a state of bankruptcy or subservience." 
The absence of any rights of Association and Assembly place 
the Nationalities and the Socialists at the mercy of the authori- 
ties, and renders infinitely more difficult the task of organiza- 
tion; while the petty annoyances and restrictions imposed upon 
those Slavs and Roumanians who remain loyal to the language 
and traditions of their ancestors, embitter their lives and aggra- 
vate racial differences. — "Racial Problems in Hungary," pp. 392-393. 



28 



SOME QUESTIONS ADDRESSED TO COUNT APPONYI 

If it be true, that freedom in Hungary is the same as in the 
United States, as you stated when you were here in 1904, why then 
are the non-Magyars in Hungary, who form according to your own 
statistics 48 per cent of the population, persecuted? 

As an apostle of peace do you believe in its fundamental prin- 
ciple : "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye 
even so to them ?" 

As a Magyar "patriot," you, of course hold, that in a Magyar 
loyalty to tradition, race and language is the purest and most ex- 
alted patriotism. Why then, do you hold in common with your 
chauvinistic Magyar compatriots,- that the same in a Slav or Rou- 
manian or German of Hungary is treason and infamy? 

Your great compatriot Szechenyi, said: "Let every one re- 
main loyal to his mother tongue, never renounce the language 
which he speaks at home and carry it with him to his grave. * * * 
Only a worthless fellow who has no faith and no God, forgets his 
fatherland and turns away from the sound of his mother tongue." 
Do you believe in this noble sentiment? 

Why were the non-Magyar citizens, constituting 48 per cent 
of all the people, deprived of representation in the Parliament for 
thirty years? 

' Granting, for the sake of argument, the correctness of Magyar 
statistics, and that the Magyars constitute 52 per cent of Hungary's 
population, will you please explain how it was possible at the last 
■elections for the Magyars to elect 433 representatives to Parlia- 
ment, while the non-Magyar nations, constituting the other 48 
per cent of Hungary's population, were able to elect only 9 
representatives? 

Do you deem it compatible with the duties of an apostle of 
peace to oppose universal suffrage and a secret ballot? 

In 1907, while you were a minister in the Coalition Cabinet, the 
so-called Agricultural Laborors' Bill was passed. Section 3 of 
which provides that workmen under the age of 18 and all members 
of workmen's families who are under age are subject to the "do- 

29 



mestic discipline" of the proprietor (in other words, may be flogged 
for certain offences). As an apostle of peace in the 20th century 
of the Christian era, did you ever raise your eloquent voice or w^ield 
your pen in opposition to this monstrous measure? 

Don't you believe that it is a requisite for the maintenance of 
peace to do justice to this 48 per cent of the non-Magyar population 
and to obey the constitutional law which guarantees their rights? 

In the last 20 years there were almost 1,000 non-Magyars sent 
to prison, fined, or both (usually both) for political crimes, and you 
are an exponent of that mad governmental system that makes such 
persecutions possible. Do you believe that you can simultaneously 
be a sponsor for such a system and also be an apostle of peace? 

When yon were Minister of Education, why did you do 
violence to justice, and in disregard of the fundamental Law of 
the Nationalities (48 per cent of all the people), wherein these are 
guaranteed the unrestricted use of the mother tongue in the ele- 
mentary schools, cause to have passed the so-called Education Acts 
bearing your name, whose purpose is to make the acquisition of the 
Magyar language the sole end of education? 

As an educator, having held the post of Minister of Education, 
will you state if the chief aim of education is the acquisition of 
culture and morality, or the sole acquisition of a language, for in- 
stance the Magyar language, as is intended by your so-called Edu- 
cation Acts? 

Do you still believe with Count Andrassy that the massacre 
of Czernova, where even innocent Slovak peasant women and chil- 
dren were murdered and wounded, was justified? 

Since press freedom in the proper sense of the word does not 
exist in Hungary; since neither universal suffrage nor even a se- 
cret ballot exist in Hungary ; since personal freedom, the right of 
association and assembly do not exist in Hungary; since the writ 
of habeas corpus is unknown in Hungary; since real justice is un- 
known in the courts of Hungary; since absolutism reigns in Hun- 
gary, you yourself in one of your speeches having said : *"The 
laws are merely an instrument for concealing the arbitrary action 
of the government," — don't you think that a sincere apostle of 
peace could find enough to engage him at home under such condi- 
tions? 

*See "Racial Problems in Hungary," p. 274. 

30 



Consistency, Thou Art a Jewel! 

The Cleveland Leader published a dispatch from Washington, 
D. C, under date of Feb. 9, in which Count Albert Apponyi's address 
to the members of Congress is reported as follows: 

MESSAGE TO NEW WORLD 

Apponyi said: "You come from the old world, too; you were 
born under a happy star. 

"That old world has legacies of tradition which are its pride and 
its burden. When your ancestors left the old world they were privi- 
ledged to take away with them the very best of those traditions and 
to leave behind what is the burden of them. You took with you the 
very best things, the very highest point of development which the old 
world had attained in those days — you took with you the sound, 
healthy, vigorous traditions of British liberty. 

OBJECT OF MISSION 

"We of the old world, desiring to come out of the devouring 
waste of the ancient spirit of animosity and distrust, appeal to you 
for assistance to do away with the hateful legacy of hatred and war 
and antagonism between men who ought to be brethren. 

"This is the object of my mission in America. This is what I 
think the spirit of the old world has to say to the spirit of the new 
world." 

The Cleveland Leader printed a dispatch from New York under 
date of Feb. IS, which contains the following: 

WILL GRIND THEM UNDER HIS HEEL 

NEW YORK, Feb. 15.— "This is not the time to talk of that," 
said Count Apponyi, when told of the protest against him by certain 
Bohemian, Slovak and Polish residents of Cleveland and Chicago. I 
will fight that out later. For years I have fought these people and I 
shall continue to fight them. 

"With the true men of my country I have the highest sympathy 
and I shall work for their welfare. JBut these underground revolu- 
tionaries, who are simply trying to arouse racial prejudices and 
divide the country, and who utter these malicious lies about me I 
shall fight till I grind them under my heel." 

And this is the manner in which this "apostle of peace" has been 
fighting "them" (the non-Magyars of Hungary) and has been grind- 
ing them under his heel. 

SUMMARY OF POLITICAL TRIALS IN HUNGARY 

[Reprinted from "Racial Problems in Hungary, p. 466.] 

Yrs. Months. Days. Fines 
Crowns 

143 Roumanians 0886-1896^ 93 1 23 42,464 

210 Roumanians 0897-1908) 38 9 3 51,327 

14 Germans (1898-1903) 2 10 10 7,720 

7 Ruthenes (1904) 5 2.100 

4 Serbs (1898-1906) 1 1 2,500 

560 Slovaks (1896-1908) 91 7 26 42,121 

938 non-Magyars 1886-1908) 232 6 2 148,232 

"You can fool all of the people some of the time^ 
you can fool some of the people all the time, but 
you cannot fool all the people all the timer' 



Consistency, Thou Art a Jewel! 

The Cleveland Leader published a dispatch from Washington, 
D. C, under date of Feb. 9, in which Count Albert Apponyi's address 
to the members of Congress is reported as follows: 

MESSAGE TO NEW WORLD 

Apponyi said: "You come from the old world, too; you were 
born under a happy star. 

"That old world has legacies of tradition which are its pride and 
its burden. When your ancestors left the old world they were privi-. 
ledged to take away with them the very best of those traditions and 
to leave behind what is the burden of them. You took with you the 
very best things, the very highest point of development which the old 
world had attained in those days — you took with you the s^urid. 
healthy, vigorous traditions of British liberty. 

OBJECT OF MISSION 

"We of the pld world, desiring to come out of the devouring 
waste of the ancient spirit of animosity and distrust, appeal to you 
for assistance to do away with the hateful legacy of hatred and war 
and antagonism between men who ought to be brethren. 

"This is the object of my mission in America. This is what I 
think the spirit of the old world has to say to the spirit of the new 
world." 

The Cleveland Leader printed a dispatch from New York under 
date of Feb. 15, which contains the following: 

WILL GRIND THEM UNDER HIS HEEL 

NEW YORK, Feb. IS.— "This is not the time to talk of that," 
said Count Apponyi, when told of the protest against him by certain 
Bohemian, Slovak and Polish residents of Cleveland and Chicago. I 
will fight that out later. For years I have fought these people and I 
shall continue to fight them. 

"With the true men of my country I have the highest sympathy 
and I shall work for their welfare. But these underground revolu- 
tionaries, who are simply trying to arouse racial prejudices and 
divide the country, and who utter these malicious lies about me I 
shall fight till I grind them under my heel." 

And this is the manner in which this "apostle of peace" has been 
fighting "them" (the non-Magyars of Hungary) and has been grind- 
ing them under his heel. 

SUMMARY OF POLITICAL TRIALS IN HUNGARY 

[Reprinted from "Racial Problems in Hungary, p. 466.] 

Yrs. Months. Days. Fines 
Crowns 

143 Roumanians (1886-1896) 93 1 23 42,464 

210 Roumanians (1897-1908) 38 9 3 • 51,327 

14 Germans (1898-1903) 2 10 10 . 7,720 

7 Ruthenes (1904) 5 0' 2,100 

4 Serbs (1898-1906) 1 1 ■ 2,500 

560 Slovaks (1896-1908) 91 7 26 42,121 

938 non-Magyars 1886-1908) 232 6 2 148,232 

"You can fool all of the people some of the timer 
you can fool some of the people all the time, but 
you cannot fool all the people all the time!'' 



